Land of the Dead....Batteries

[shyfty]

Hi all,

What kind of current draw would drain a fully-charged battery in 30 minutes? I'm trying to get an idea on where to start looking for this short I seem to have.

To let you know what I know... I have an early '74. The blinkers weren't working, so I set out to fix that. I came across a hunk of wiring not really connected to anything: a couple wires were running hot to a little box that resembled a simple security system. I checked the FSM, and it appears this was factory installed, but in my case it was non-functional. So, I removed it and the wiring.

It ending up me having to resolder the wires to the blinker switch to get the blinkers to work, which they then did...for a few minutes.

The blinkers again do not work, and now I have a major short. Any ideas on where to start looking first?

[shyfty]

...I mean really

This is a pretty big short, right? Where should I start looking? There are oodles of wires, but if there's someone who's redone their's and who knows of this kind of possibility....

[Xargon321]

Resoldered what the wires in the turn signal switch? its self or some where else? the turn signals power runs threw that hazard switch which has power all the times, mine turn signals didnt work cause this was way corrouded and once i cleaned it they worked great, also your high beams switch runs with the turnsignal switch. is it possible you crossed a wire or mabey bridged a connection with some solder that caused the short?

[shyfty]

The only thing I resoldered was the single wire activating the left turn signal. It's a rocker switch and, it being a clean solder, yeilded no misswiring. I touched that switch only; nothing else was removed (except for the useless black box, as stated earlier).

[2ManyZs]

I think your "mystery black box" is perhaps the problem. You say it was a simple security system? There was no such thing on the 260's, other than a seatbelt interlock.

It was could have been either the relay for the seatbelt interlock, or perhaps the transistor ignition unit (?).

If this "useless black box" was mounted on the firewall, just to the right of the battery and just above the brake lines, it's not what you think. You may have created an open circuit and that is what is draining your battery.

Hard to tell without seeing a pic of what you have......

[Daniel]

If it kills a battery in 30 min. I would think you would see smoke! Get yourself a 12v test light. The one I use has a clip on one end and that is attached to an icepick looking tool. Clip to the pos. on the battery. install the point in the battery pos cable. Now the tool is between the battery and cable. It will glow indicating current flow(short). Myself I start pulling fuses .The tester will no longer glow when the short is removed. I would look at starter and alternator. I would think anything else would smoke from that much load.